ServiceSource in line for $300K grant for downtown expansion

Created 02/02/2012 - 12:26pm

ServiceSource, a rapidly growing company that specializes in service revenue management, is in line for a $300,000 urban development grant to assist with its planned sales center and regional headquarters expansion in downtown Nashville.

The Metro Council is set to consider approval of the financial incentive, outlined in a resolution, at its Feb. 7 meeting next week.

Under the company’s expansion, announced in December, ServiceSource plans to create 300 new jobs and occupy additional square footage inside its office building at downtown Fourth Avenue and Church Street. After opening a Nashville Sales Center in 2008, ServiceSource has grown to employ 500 people in Nashville.

“ServiceSource’s expansion will add hundreds of high-quality jobs and help build our educated workforce — two essential ingredients to the vibrancy and continued growth of our city,” Mayor Karl Dean said in December.

Dean’s administration has put forth a proposal that would appropriate a $300,000 Capitol Mall Urban Development Action Grant to the Metro Development and Housing Agency to aid ServiceSource.

The MDHA board would be required to sign off on the UDAG funds, which are to go to reimburse ServiceSource’s purchasing and installation of information technology equipment — infrastructure needed to accommodate the company’s new Nashville employees.

According to Metro Council attorney Jon Cooper, UDAG grants must benefit economic development or affordable housing projects within its designated district. He estimated the balance of the Capitol Mall Urban Development Action Grant is approximately $1.8 million.

In 2010, Dean’s administration tapped the same pool of dollars, through MDHA, to assist Loews Hotels in creating a new “Shared Service Center” in the Fifth Third Center on downtown Church Street. Incentives for Loews totaled $310,000 to help spur 187 new jobs.

Also on Tuesday, the council will consider a separate resolution that would appropriate a $300,000 Capital Mall Urban Development Action Grant to assist the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. The grant would also have to go through MDHA.

The entrepreneur center, borne out of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, seeks to provide training and resources to expanding or new area businesses. A registered nonprofit organization — and beneficiary of federal, state and local dollars — the entrepreneur center plans to open new headquarters inside the historic Trolley Barns at the Rolling Hill Mill development.

Under the agreement, the $300,000 in urban development grant dollars would be to offset a portion of the costs accrued during the ongoing construction of the Trolley Barn offices.